Oregon’s special teams seek consistency as potential for closer games builds

There are myriad ways in which a single special teams play can turn a close game.

Down two, needing a field goal to win. Up six, punting out of your own end zone. Go-ahead touchdown on the board, but one last kickoff return to cover.

In all of those phases of the game, Oregon has had a breakdown or two this season. But with the No. 2 Ducks at 6-0, it hasn’t mattered much. All of which could change entering what sets up as a more challenging second half of the regular season, which starts Thursday at Arizona State.

“I would still say, with our kicking game, I guess the jury’s out with where we are,” UO coach Chip Kelly said. “But we haven’t been in a game where we needed to have a clutch kick; we haven’t been in a game where, hey, we need a punt here to get us some breathing room. And that’s a fortunate situation.”

To judge special teams as a single entity is a rash overgeneralization. There are too many different elements, and too many elements to the elements.

Oregon’s punt team has been exceptional at protecting the punter and covering kicks, but punter Jackson Rice has been inconsistent. The kickoff return team, after weeks of being avoided by opponents settling for touchbacks, has been close to busting several long returns, but for a single breakdown among the 11 players on the field.

Ask UO special teams coordinator Tom Osborne about an area that’s struggled, and he’s liable to counter with a bright spot from the same unit. Talk up a different element of the kicking game, and he might point out an imperfection elsewhere.

Case in point, Rice’s struggles. A Ray Guy Award finalist a year ago, Rice is averaging just 36.9 yards per kick through six games this fall. But the Ducks have allowed just three of his 21 punts to be returned, for a total of — get this — minus-four yards, fewest in the country.

And that despite facing eight-man rushes from the return unit an inordinate amount of times, compared to past averages, Osborne said.

“Our guys have done a great job of protecting,” he said. “We’ve done a great job covering so far. What we haven’t done is a great job of punting so far.” Click here for the complete story.